I run my goblins very much like in Goblin Slayer. Brutal and evil yet weak alone and without their pack. Dumb and retarded but conniving. Ugly and deformed but looking to enslave women in their filthy dens.

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 19, 2021, 04:13:16 PM
The forgotten realms, pathfinder, and a bunch of other things, have just become a big furry convention where lots of people don't want to play humans and just use different races/species as player characters to show how "quirky and unique" they are while yiffing all over your furniture.

Fact check true

It's almost as though there are universal standards of beauty or something!  Go figure...

QuoteGood points, Jeff! Interestingly, both the seemingly more traditional depiction of Goblins being hordes of evil foot soldiers and minions--and Pathfinder's revamped depiction of Goblins being innovative, prankster-like terrorists flavoured from Gremlins movies--both depictions I think have fairly strong roots in historical mythology. They are related depictions, while still being distinctly different. I like it!

I'd say not really. First and foremost if you want historically accurate goblin then from cannon fodder pest, you need to turn it back into Fae being. Presumable CN one.
Evil ones akin to redcaps, other akin to just ugly puks. Evil foot soldier for orc/goblin is basically Tolkien invention, Gremlins... well we know. Both are XX-century and aside of ugly and small they have little to do with magical mischevous spirits of old folklore.

QuoteIt's not like this is anything new. Tolkein-style Dwarves shouldn't be a thing, he just invented them to clean up the legends. The Dwarves as depicted in Norse/Germanic myths got split into two races of Dwarves and Goblins, one of which got all the good aspects of the originals and the other getting all the unpleasant features. Bizarre as it sounds to say it the Harry Potter version of goblins is actually more accurate to myth than Tolkein.

Tolkien style Dwarves are distinctly Semitic in speech, and style, and proficency to arcane. Most of dwarves in D&D are more I think Warhammer dwarves - angry Scottish antimagical mining manlets. I agree Khazads of Tolkien breaks certain elements of Germanic mythos, but so do his Elves, and his Gods, so nothing new here.

I've remarked on this before, but what the hell, I'm up for another go around.

Make your goblins, orcs, whatever, the way YOU want them depicted in game. Evil spirits in human flesh? Proud Warrior Race Guys & Girls? Sapient fungal collections? Go nuts. It's your goddamn game.

I do prefer Pathfinder (1E's) depiction of goblins, though, since they straddle the line between 'comedy' and 'danger' nicely. It's why I was bemused that 2E made them a playable race ancestry; it's like... playing a Kafer in the old 2300AD RPG. Why?

(I would've picked kobolds instead, for the record. MUCH more interesting.)

Ągree PF goblins as described made for terrible PC's.

Quote from: Wrath of God on October 28, 2021, 04:24:12 AM
Ągree PF goblins as described made for terrible PC's.

My players always play terrible PCs so Goblin would be a perfect race for them to use

Quote from: Shasarak on October 28, 2021, 04:39:50 AM

Quote from: Wrath of God on October 28, 2021, 04:24:12 AM
Ągree PF goblins as described made for terrible PC's.

My players always play terrible PCs so Goblin would be a perfect race for them to use

Yeah, but there's terrible PCs, and then there's 'we're literally so stupid that we think writing steals words out of your head'.

That is literal canon for PF goblins.

QuoteYeah, but there's terrible PCs, and then there's 'we're literally so stupid that we think writing steals words out of your head'.

That is literal canon for PF goblins.

After decade of reading various RPG forums, I'm afraid goblins may be right.

I recently found and ordered Mantic Games Kings of War goblins as well. Minis seem solid and more rag tag than the Oathmark ones. I'll give an update if you want it when the minis come in.

Quote from: DMJim on October 24, 2021, 01:00:41 PM

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 19, 2021, 04:13:16 PM
The forgotten realms, pathfinder, and a bunch of other things, have just become a big furry convention where lots of people don't want to play humans and just use different races/species as player characters to show how "quirky and unique" they are while yiffing all over your furniture.

Fact check true

Lie check True.

I have two distinct types of goblin to deal with the extremes. They're the same species, but owing to a goblin generation being about two years... one branch are the creative bat-like beastmen who worship the goddess of dreams and the moon (so all sorts of enchantment and illusion magic).

The others have been brutalized and tortured by the orcs for a hundred generations until they are barely more than savage animals, their wings torn from their bodies as infants to keep them from escaping the slave pits where, if there is mercy, it is that they live barely four years. The strongest and most savage get the "privilege" of becoming the orcs' slave soldiers they throw into battle as cannon fodder ahead of their main thrusts. The ones who survive become the favored pets of their orc masters and get to boss around the lesser goblins for the orcs. They're evil, but the way a brutalized and starving dog trained to attack people is evil... a reflection of their masters' soul.

Even the free goblins agree the only merciful action to take with their tormented kin is to send them home to their goddess in hopes of a peace in the next life they were denied in this one. Everyone also agrees the orcs are monsters deserving only of death... because they are humans who choose to inflict their wickedness on others because they are "the strong" and all who are weak deserve to be enslaved (they are also not barbarians... organizationally and culturally they're all the worst traits of the Roman Empire at it's most decadent).

Short-version... there are "sexy" (in the "furries can make anything into a fetish" sense) bat-girl goblins, but the majority are feral animals about as sexy as meeting a real-life feral child kept locked in a cellar for decades (as in *squick* + *vomit*).

Quotebecause they are humans who choose to inflict their wickedness on others because they are "the strong" and all who are weak deserve to be enslaved (they are also not barbarians... organizationally and culturally they're all the worst traits of the Roman Empire at it's most decadent).

Hmmm... that's bit weird description because it seems more like Sparta or Rome in non-decadent times (because Rome in decadent stage was far from vicious slaving Empire of it's prime).

The Rule 34 community turning Goblins into Green Halflings and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

Quote from: Snark Knight on December 14, 2021, 08:32:41 AM
The Rule 34 community has been a disaster for the human race.

FTFY.